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Matthew Ostroff, a 2020 Suzanne Herbst Award recipient, hosts an on-demand Webinar in which he discusses vascular access for the COVID-19 patient, delivered by Fujifilm Sonosite.

​The UK has been one of the worst-hit countries in the Coronavirus fight. ​Watch Sonosite's CMO, Dr Diku Mandavia interview with Dr Justin Kirk-Bayley as he speaks about his own frontline experience as well as contracting the virus himself. Justin also looks at how ultrasound is being utilised with cardiac assessments as well as lungs.

Watch a replay of the GE Healthcare webinar featuring Dr. Jonny Wilkinson to learn about the role of point of care ultrasound in the #COVID19 patient journey and the importance of lung and cardiac ultrasound in managing patients with this disease.

Methods: This was a retrospective review of multi-year quality assurance logs on cardiacarrest patients evaluated with point-of-care Echo during CPR, over a seven year period.All patients in cardiopulmonary arrest that presented when physicians trained in Echowere availabile and had quality assurance documentation completed, were eligible forenrollment. Patients for whom incomplete data was present in the logs were excludedfrom the study. This study took place at a busy emergency medicine department with alarge cardiac population and an approximate annual census of 80,000 visits per year.Emergency physicians (EPs), with hospital credentialing in point-of-care Echo, routinelyused ultrasound as part of their standard management of CPR patients. During all pulsechecks, nurses and physicians attempted to locate pulses while one EP performed a briefEcho of the heart with a compact ultrasound machine. Echo checks were limited to thetime available during pulse checks and ended when the treating EP ordered resumption ofchest compressions. Myocardial function was graded into normal ejection fraction (EF),mildly, moderately, severely depressed, negligible function and asystole as previouslydefined in the literature. If Echo suggested sufficient EF to generate blood flow but pulsecheck was negative, the carotid arteries were evaluated with Doppler when interferencewith resuscitative efforts could be avoided. Statistical analysis included descriptivestatistics and Cohen Kappa coefficient for agreement analysis.

​Results: A total of 693 pulse checks occurred concomitantly with Echo checks in 226patients. Of the 226 patients, 59 (26.1%) had resumption of spontaneous circulation at some point in their resuscitation based on pulse palpation and electrocardiographicmonitor tracing. A total of 178 (25.7%) Echo checks revealed an EF felt to likelygenerate a detectable blood pressure. In 47% (84) of those Echo checks, no pulses werepalpable. Conversely, in 31 (6%) pulse checks (when electrical cardiac activity was notedon the monitor) and a healthcare provider felt palpable pulses, the echo showed eithermyocardial standstill or negligible EF. Echo results and pulse palpation during pulsechecks showed poor correlation with a Kappa of 0.52.

Conclusions: In this study, Echo findings and pulse palpation results periodicallydisagreed when myocardial activity was present. When Doppler analysis of carotid flowwas possible in patients with adequate EF but no pulses, flow was always noted. Veryconcerning, in 6% of patients apparent palpable pulses occurred when Echo showed nomyocardial contraction or negligible EF

Opportunities with UIE in New ZealandIf you are in the planning stages for 2020 and wish to solidify your POCUS skills or are keen to achieve the ASUM and updated ACEM requirements, please check out the workshops we have available on our website www.uie.co.nz.

With POCUS handhelds now more readily available, there is an exciting opportunity to embrace the game changing benefits to patient outcomes in acute and urgent care environments beyond the emergency department.

Increased accessibility to POCUS technology comes with a sense of responsibility for ensuring that those with probes in their hands are adequately trained and supervised.

A group of passionate POCUS users lead by Dr Mick Kileen, FACEM and US Clinical Director at Whangarei Hospital in Northland New Zealand, teamed up with Philips in a partnership to meet this need for clinicians in remote or resource restricted environments.

The project was called The Handheld Collaboration.Together they conducted a feasibility study on bringing safe, comprehensive and not for profit POCUS education and supervision to frontline doctors via distance learning and video interaction using Philips Lumify and Philips Reacts Telehealth platform.

The study ran over three months with 4 supervisors and 5 trainees each supplied with a Lumify and Reacts platform on loan from our friends at Philips.

The study provided Philips with objective insight to the use of the Lumify and Reacts platform is such a setting and provided EMUGs valuable insights to inform the design of future training and supervision pathways with benefits for our Developing Countries programs and beyond.

The trainees thoroughly enjoyed the use of their loaned Lumify pairing them with large screen phones or small tablets.They report that having the Lumify on them meant they scanned more often, resulting in a faster rate of skill development and logged scans and were able to use the probe for everything they would have otherwise use a standard machine for.

Want to get your hands on a Lumify?For the month of December, the ‘dream’ under $5000 price point for a Lumify handheld ultrasound is now a reality (for people who move quickly).

This is a special offer to the EMUGs Community and is available in Australia and New Zealand only and only while in country stocks last.The offer: inventory clearance sale

Ex-demo Lumify stockpile, all in perfect working order, some un-used

Under 6 months old: manufactured in June 2019 or later

These are all current model probes, this is a global level inventory sale because it the end of our financial year.

Offer only available in December 2019

Offer only available while in-country stock lasts

$7,999 reduced to AUD$4,999per Lumify with 3 years warranty (AUD, before GST)